Soppressata Pizza

INGREDIENTS

PIZZA DOUGH (for two 10 inch pizzas):

• 3 cups 00 flour (or at least use bread flour - try to avoid all purpose if possible)

• 1 cup warm water

• 5 grams active dry yeast (about half a pack or just about 1 ¼ tsp)

• 1 tsp olive oil

FRESH TOMATO SAUCE :

• One 28-oz can whole San Marzano tomatoes (you will have leftovers unless you can find a smaller can)

• 4-5 fresh basil leaves

• 1 TBS olive oil

• Salt to taste

ADDITIONAL NEEDS:

• 6 TBS fresh tomato sauce

• 2 oz of fresh mozzarella

• 1 ½ oz thinly sliced soppressata (or other cured Italian meat)

• Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

• Black olives for topping (pitted)

• Oregano

• Fresh basil for topping (optional)

GO FOR IT

PIZZA DOUGH:

1. Combine warm water, olive oil, and yeast - then let sit about 5 minutes to start

2. Combine 1 ½ cups of flour into mixing bowl and pour in liquid with yeast

3. Mix together slowly to combine, then slowly add in 1 more cup of flour (for a total of 2 ½ cups of flour), then add salt

4. Knead with your hands for about 3 minutes until a sticky dough forms (it should be sticky but still pull away from the bowl - if too sticky to pull away, add more flour 1 TBS at a time until it can)

5. Let sticky dough rest in bowl under a damp towel for 15 minutes

6. After resting, you have 2 choices. You can move the dough onto a floured surface and repeatably fold and knead it until a nice smooth, soft, stretchy, and slightly tacky ball forms (may take some time). OR, you can place in stand mixer with dough hook and mix on lowest setting until a nice smooth, soft, stretchy, and slightly tacky ball forms

7. Split your ball into 2 equal pieces and reshape pieces into ball

8. Place balls on a small, slightly floured plate and cover with plastic wrap or damp towel

9. For best results, put in refrigerator for 24 hours (bring to room temperature again before using) OR leave covered on counter for AT LEAST 3 hours before using

TOMATO SAUCE:

1. Into a bowl, pour entire can of tomatoes (juices and all)

2. Add olive oil, torn basil leaves, and salt

3. Using clean hands, combine while crushing tomatoes into a nice chunky sauce

4. If found, remove any hard tomato cores

TO FINISH:

1. Place a pizza stone on an oven rack (if you don’t have a pizza stone, place an aluminum baking pan large enough to fit your pizza - bottom side facing up - on an oven rack) and heat oven to 450° or the highest it will go.

2. Meanwhile, place pizza dough ball on a lightly floured surface and start pushing the edges out from the center until your pizza shape forms (if pizza is sticking to surface then throw a little bit more flour underneath). If you’re comfortable get your dough slightly flattened out and then toss it back and forth from one palm of your hand to the other in a circular motion. I promise it’s really easy, and you’ll form it out much faster and obtain a thinner crust as God intended.

3. Place formed pizza dough onto a FLOURED pizza peel (or a FLOURED thin cutting board, rimless cookie sheet, serving platter, or thick piece of cardboard - anything that will allow you to slide this easily into the oven afterwards onto your stone or baking pan)

4. Then, use the bottom of a spoon to spread out tomato sauce onto your pizza

5. Grate some fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano over the sauce (use just a little bit - you want to see your sauce still)

6. Next, place torn mozzarella pieces throughout pizza, strategically placing in areas that have less sauce on the surface (I like to slice my mozzarella at least ¼ thick)

7. Next place soppressata throughout the pizza, sliced into sizes of your choice

8. Top with olives (I cut mine in half lengthwise)

9. Sprinkle with oregano

10. Slide pizza into oven onto stone or baking pan

11. Cook for 10 minutes (or until done - you’ll know when the cheese and sauce are bubbling and crust has is nicely golden)

NOTES:

I used to be pretty terrible at Italian tomato sauce. My Tex-Mex roots always want to kick things up a notch with more flavor and more seasonings. Thankfully, I’ve learned that tomato sauce is beautifully simplistic as long as you use good canned tomatoes. You do not need to go buy canned pizza sauce. Even the nicer brands of canned tomatoes will still cost you less than pre-made sauce. Please give this a try. It’s super easy. You might not even need fresh basil if your canned tomatoes have basil in there. Check the can, taste, then decide for yourself. If you want to get crazy, then add a little garlic. But this is so easy that anyone can do it. Use your leftover sauce and cook it with pasta - or make more pizzas. Additionally, the restaurant version of this recipe did not call for topping the pizza with basil. But I have friends that grow fresh herbs and they gave me some Thai basil I needed to use or it would have gone bad. Personally, I thought it was an awesome addition but do what you want.

You may notice that I only use half a packet of yeast for my dough and be wondering why I’m wasting yeast. This is only because the 2 restaurant recipes I adapted my dough from gave me enough dough for 4 pizzas and I didn’t want 4 pizzas. Maybe you want to double up and make 4 pizzas. If so, then go for it. (If you’re curious, I adapted the recipe for my dough from the dough recipes for Bianco in Phoenix and Roberta’s in Brooklyn. Bianco does not add olive oil or rest for a full 24 hours - Roberta’s in Brooklyn does. However, Roberta’s uses a mix of 00 flour and all-purpose and I like that Bianco uses all 00)

You might also be more disciplined than I am with your dough formation. It seems most of what I found did not call for a stand mixer. But you know what? I paid good money for my stand mixer and got tired of working with the sticky dough so in it went. And guess what, the pizza was incredible - crust and all. Just remember, the longer you let it rest, the better it’s going to be. With that 24 hour rest time, it was lovely. If you’re not that patient then please just wait at least 3 hours before forming into a pizza.